Since switching to mains pressure hot water I need a new shower in one of our bathrooms. It currently has a digital mixer (the type in the loft which just has one output which goes to the shower) which incorporates a pump and requires gravity feed pressure. It's started leaking - it probably shouldn't have been reconnected to the mains pressure hot.

 

I would prefer a standard thermostatic shower but that would require running more pipe. However, I think it might be possible to have a thermostatic shower with one feed...

 

In a different bathroom I have a Bristan shower that has one knob for pressure and one for temperature. The controller stands off the wall and takes one feed pipe. In the loft (above the bathroom) the hot and cold are merged into one pipe - this one pipe then goes through the ceiling down into the bathroom and into the controller. This was also downstream of a pump, but I don't think the pump was necessary. They don't appear connected in any way.

It's not a digital mixer - there's no mixer unit as such. There's just a Y junction where the hot and cold are merged.

 

It's like a normal themostatic shower, but the hot/cold feeds aren't where the control knobs are.

 

If we could merge the hot/cold in the loft, like with the shower above, that would give the best of both worlds.

 

What are these types of shower called? I can't see it anywhere on the Bristan website.

Edited May 12, 20224 yr by gravelld

Just cost me £480 to have the mixer unit (actually the box in the loft) on my Mother's Aqualisa shower replaced.

No real complaints as it is well over 20 years old (we are not quite sure when it was new).

Simple control. Press button, it comes up to temperature, light stops flashing. Temperature is controlled by simply turning a dial.

I assume the temperature has an upper limit for safety.

Edited May 12, 20224 yr by SteamyTea

I found what it is... it's one of these: https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/bristan-jute-mini-twinline-thermostatic-shower-valve-w-adjustable-riser-ceiling-fed

 

I think the generic term is "ceiling fed". "Twinline" is Bristan's name for it... I think. But I can't see it on their website anymore, so maybe this design is obsolete.